The invention relates to a tub having at least one nozzle, built into the vicinity of the tub wall for introducing a water-and-air mixture, which communicates via a pressure line with the pressure side of a pump, the intake side of which communicates via a pipeline with an intake opening in the vicinity of the bottom of the tub.
Tubs of this type, which as a rule can be installed like a standard bathtub, are used in such a way that for a "whirlpool bath", the tub is filled and emptied after the bath in the usual manner. Care must be taken when emptying the tub that the pump system pipelines, including the pump, are emptied as well, to prevent bacterial growth.
In relatively large-capacity tubs of this type, in which the tub or pool is kept filled over a relatively long period of time and is used several times before refilling, water-conditioning devices, in particular filters, are provided in the pipeline system so that germs can largely be prevented from forming in the water. In pools of this type as well, care must be taken that the pipeline system be emptied completely as well when the water is changed, so that when the pool is refilled, contamination of the freshly drawn water is avoided.
From German Patent 34 20 714, a whirlpool tub is known in which the pipeline system, via a system of level sensors and controllable valves, is equipped such that when it is filled, the entire pipeline system is first flushed with fresh water, so that any of the old water that may still remain is flushed out into the drain line and can no longer get into the water filling the tub when the swirl nozzle system, which functions by recirculation, is put into operation.
It has now been found that flushing with fresh water is no longer adequate over a relatively long period of time. The entire pipeline system that carries water must therefore be treated from time to time in a separate cleaning operation, in which a cleaning and/or disinfecting solution is poured into the tub along with the fresh water. Especially in whirlpool tubs used in private homes, either this additional operation is omitted completely or it is performed at such long time intervals that the danger that the water filling the tub will become contaminated by sources of bacteria in the pipeline system cannot be precluded.
The automatically closing nozzles known previously are not only complicated in their structure, because of the required pivotability of the nozzle body, but also have disadvantageous housing shapes, which do not permit complete emptying and/or satisfactory flushing with a cleaning agent. Moreover, a defined supply of the air via an air line protruding into the nozzle body is not possible, so that the previously known closable nozzle forms can admix air only in the suction mode, and the connection of an air compressor, or in other words an air supply that takes place independently of the flow through the nozzle, is not possible.